Hi, i have an 86 trans am. Story was some low life "gangsters" were fighting in front of my house. I was not awake but my parents called the cops. A fat puertorican and his n**** buddy were fighting in front of my house and on my car. the fat one fell on my headlight and was sitting on it. The next morning i woke up and my parents told me the story. Now the passenger side headlight is below the bumper. I tried putting the headlights up with the switch but it doesn't pop up, I even tried turning the **** and it doesn't go up. How would i go about getting the headlight back up?

 

Sounds like the plastic gear is broke inside. I know you can get replacement gears online pretty cheap (auto parts store used to carry them too but not sure if they still do)

 

Is that a tough thing to replace?

 

Only in New York!
Not hard to replace. Just have to take off the motor or pull out the bucket first.

 

as long as you still hear the motor you don't need to replace it. You need to get something to pry the light back above the bumper once you do that turn your lights on and off till your light becomes unstuck, i deal with this same problem on a daily basis trust me.

 

You have fat people sitting on your car and pushing the lights below the bumper on a daily basis? And your solution is to pry on the headlight?

I'm gonna have to say that something is probably broken. BadassCamaro's post sounds entirely plausible to me, and that would in fact be the first thing I would check. The last thing I recommend doing is prying on the headlight housing.

 

Yes, I'm pissed off. I don't want to pry it cause i might break the housing. I'll unscrew the housing and lift the headlight assembly back and up over the bumper. I'm really praying that the motor or gears are not broken. I didn't hear the motor turning when i turned it on the other night. The **** wont even turn it. I'm really hoping its just stuck under the bumper and wont move. I have a car meet tonight, must go!

 

yeah i have fat people falling on my car on a daily basis i knew some douche bag would say that.My passenger headlight gets stuck below the bumper half the time when i turn of my lights off i pry it just above the bumper not all the way up, yeah not the ideal thing to do but only solution till i replace the plastic gears so unknowghost stfu were all here only trying to help from our own experiences and not just agree with other people.

 

Umm... I think his thought process was along the lines of "no advice is better than bad advice". No need for hostility fellas.
Prying it up is a bad idea with the flimsy housings. I've cracked a couple of mine trying to get it up(zing!). Unless you mean gently inching it up with your fingers. That's worth a shot, but if you feel high resistance, go another route.

 

I have a similar problem both my head lights were stuck under the bumper I popped them up on top of the bumper by hand, and they were working the after the snow they got stuck again, I popped them up once more, but now the motors just spin, would that be the gear? And they both went at the same time?

 

Take apart the motor and have a look. If it's just spinning that would sound like the plastic gear stripped.

 

Actually my dad did just what firebird1990 did. I was getting tools and he did it by hand without me even touching it with a wrench. He just gently pried it over the bumper and it worked like it never got stuck. Spawnicus, if it is the plastic gears they sell a gear repair kit http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/87-92...item4aa98bb9ea

Btw Thank you guys for the help. This has been bothering me the whole week.

 

Here's a pic.

 

By hand is one thing. If it works, it works. But the mental image that comes along with Firebird1990's post is some.... person in front of their car with a 3 foot breaker bar trying to pops a headlight out from under a bumper.

Firebird1990, if you have an issue please feel free to take it up through private messages, there's no further need for it here. But please be aware that if someone is giving advice that will cause further damage, or poorly worded advice that gives the impression of something that will cause further damage, I will say something about it. "get something and pry on your headlight" is a great example of that.